BOUND SURFACING
THE HISTORIC
HITCHIN MARKET
PAVING REFURBISHMENT AND REPOINTING
PROJECT
In talking to Local Authority
Engineers recently, it has become
very clear that the information in an
independent Investigative Report,
which was made following a detailed
8 year durability evaluation and
with site inspections by the team
from Paving Expert.com that was
carried out approximately 2 years
ago in 2017, would be of tremendous
assistance to ALL Town and City
Councils, District and other Unitary
Authorities around this country.
The Historic Hitchin Market paving
refurbishment and repointing
project using GftK’s vdw 850 plus
Paving Joint Mortar was now carried
out after extensive evaluations and
field testing for 12 months by the
responsible engineers, completed
10 years ago, and just as in the
inspection two years ago, in 2019
after 10 years service, it is still look
good, performing in all weather
conditions and under frequent
heavy trafficking of this busy
market square! ‘After 8 years it looks like it was
jointed yesterday!’ - These were the
words from www.PavingExpert.com
when they visited to inspect the
paving refurbishment that they
had last witnessed underway on
the site eight years ago, when the
traditional granite sett paving of
the historic Hitchin Market Square
in Hertfordshire, was refurbished
and repointed with GftK’s vdw 850
Paving Joint Mortar. The expert
continues: ‘Oh yes - The paving
had been patched and pointed,
re-pointed and grouted, glued and
all sorts over the years, but nothing
lasted long. They might get a couple
of years, but before you knew it, the
setts were a rocking and rolling all
over again. Faced with the prospect
of having to lift and re-lay the
whole square, at huge cost, the Local
Authority and their Consultants
undertook some tests and decided
to have one last roll of the dice with
what looked like a very promising
product: VDW 850 resin jointing
mortar by NCC Streetscape.’
The Hitchin Town Centre Paving
Refurbishment Inspection Report
in full can be viewed
pavingexpert.com/point_ncc06.htm Like many old town centres and
market squares, this is now a
very different and demanding
environment for paving and
36
www.landud.co.uk
particularly the pointing, due to
multiple heavy duty loadings and
all sorts of modern traffic exposure,
plus frequent mechanical street
cleaning etc. However, working in
phases, without closing the market,
this project was completed on time
and on budget, because work could
continue and be completed using
GftK’s vdw 850. This unique paving
joint mortar is based on graded,
water dispersed, epoxy resin coated
and bound, alluvial, no-fines quartz
sand. No-fines means no-dust
produced in mixing either - very
important for occupied streets with
people and businesses continuing
to work. Just as the contractor can
continue to work, even despite the
wet weather and low temperatures
throughout, which would have made
any cement based or single-pack
paving pointing mortar useless and
doomed to failure. Today after now
10 Years, the historic market paving
is still looking great, a valuable asset
to the Town; most importantly it will
also continue to do so!
www.pavingexpert.com
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